Robert J. Shiller Quotes & Sayings

My very first publication was an estimator - this was a statistical procedure - a kind of invention. My father got a patent and started a business; it wasn't successful, but maybe I have some of him in me. — Robert J. Shiller

Some of the best theorizing comes after collecting data because then you become aware of another reality. — Robert J. Shiller

As I write in 2012 we certainly do not believe that it is over yet, and the worst may be yet to come. Efforts by governments to solve the underlying problems responsible for the crisis have still not gotten very far, and the 'stress tests' that governments have used to encourage optimism about our financial institutions were of questionable thoroughness. — Robert J. Shiller

Economics is (now) about emotion and psychology. — Robert J. Shiller

Stock prices are likely to be among the prices that are relatively vulnerable to purely social movements because there is no accepted theory by which to understand the worth of stocks ... investors have no model or at best a very incomplete model of behavior of prices, dividend, or earnings, of speculative assets. — Robert J. Shiller

A major boom in real stock prices in the U.S. after 'Black Tuesday' brought them halfway back to 1929 levels by 1930. This was followed by a second crash, another boom from 1932 to 1937, and a third crash. Speculative bubbles do not end like a short story, novel, or play. There is no final denouement that brings all the strands of a narrative into an impressive final conclusion. In the real world, we never know when the story is over. — Robert J. Shiller

I am worried that the collapse of home prices might turn out to be the most severe since the Great Depression. — Robert J. Shiller

My father, Benjamin Shiller, told me not to believe in authorities or celebrities - that society tends to imagine them as superhuman. It's good advice. People are snowed by celebrities all the time. In academia people have this idea of achieving stardom - publishing in the best journals, being at the best university, writing on the hot topic everyone else is writing about. But that's what my father told me not to do. He taught me that you have to pursue things that sound right to you. — Robert J. Shiller

It amazes me how people are often more willing to act based on little or no data than to use data that is a challenge to assemble. — Robert J. Shiller

The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence. — Robert J. Shiller

Economists who adhere to rational-expectations models of the world will never admit it, but a lot of what happens in markets is driven by pure stupidity - or, rather, inattention, misinformation about fundamentals, and an exaggerated focus on currently circulating stories. — Robert J. Shiller

Money management has been a profession involving a lot of fakery - people saying they can beat the market, and they really can't. — Robert J. Shiller

Somehow, talking to young students brings you back to reality - it should, anyway. — Robert J. Shiller